Activity 1: Head injuries and gas. Dealing with increased number of Head injuries The biggest killer on the battlefield and the cause of many facial injuries was shrapnel. Unlike the straight-line wounds inflicted by bullets, the twisted metal shards...
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Activity 1: Head injuries and gas. Dealing with increased number of Head injuries The biggest killer on the battlefield and the cause of many facial injuries was shrapnel. Unlike the straight-line wounds inflicted by bullets, the twisted metal shards produced from a shrapnel blast could rip a face off. Not only that, but the shrapnel's shape would often drag clothing and dirt into the wound. Improved medical care meant that more injured soldiers could be kept alive, but urgently dealing with such devastating injuries was a new challenge. Harold Gillies was the man the British Army tasked with fixing these grisly wounds. Born in New Zealand, he studied medicine at Cambridge before joining the British Army Medical Corps at the outset of World War One. Gillies was shocked by the injuries he saw in the field, and requested that the army set up their own plastic surgery unit. Soon after, a specifically-designed hospital was opened in Sidcup. It treated 2,000 patients after the Battle of the
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